About a month after the perfidious Werther’s withdrawal, poor Pons left his bed for the first time after an attack of nervous fever, and walked along the sunny side of the street leaning on Schmucke’s arm.  Nobody in the Boulevard du Temple laughed at the “pair of nutcrackers,” for one of the old men looked so shattered, and the other so touchingly careful of his invalid friend.  By the time that they reached the Boulevard Poissonniere, a little color came back to Pons’ face; he was breathing the air of the boulevards, he felt the vitalizing power of the atmosphere of the crowded street, the life-giving property of the air that is noticeable in quarters where human life abounds; in the filthy Roman Ghetto, for instance, with its swarming Jewish population, where malaria is unknown.  Perhaps, too, the sight of the streets, the great spectacle of Paris, the daily pleasure of his life, did the invalid good.  They walked on side by side, though Pons now and again left his friend to look at the shop windows.  Opposite the Theatre des Varietes he saw Count Popinot, and went up to him very respectfully, for of all men Pons esteemed and venerated the ex-Minister.

The peer of France answered him severely: 

“I am at a loss to understand, sir, how you can have no more tact than to speak to a near connection of a family whom you tried to brand with shame and ridicule by a trick which no one but an artist could devise.  Understand this, sir, that from to-day we must be complete strangers to each other.  Mme. la Comtesse Popinot, like every one else, feels indignant at your behavior to the Marvilles.”

And Count Popinot passed on, leaving Pons thunderstruck.  Passion, justice, policy, and great social forces never take into account the condition of the human creature whom they strike down.  The statesman, driven by family considerations to crush Pons, did not so much as see the physical weakness of his redoubtable enemy.

“Vat is it, mine boor friend?” exclaimed Schmucke, seeing how white Pons had grown.

“It is a fresh stab in the heart,” Pons replied, leaning heavily on Schmucke’s arm.  “I think that no one, save God in heaven, can have any right to do good, and that is why all those who meddle in His work are so cruelly punished.”

The old artist’s sarcasm was uttered with a supreme effort; he was trying, excellent creature, to quiet the dismay visible in Schmucke’s face.

“So I dink,” Schmucke replied simply.

Pons could not understand it.  Neither the Camusots nor the Popinots had sent him notice of Cecile’s wedding.

On the Boulevard des Italiens Pons saw M. Cardot coming towards them.  Warned by Count Popinot’s allocution, Pons was very careful not to accost the old acquaintance with whom he had dined once a fortnight for the last year; he lifted his hat, but the other, mayor and deputy of Paris, threw him an indignant glance and went by.  Pons turned to Schmucke.